New System - €900 vs. €1200 budget and cost/performance concerns

[Biomega]

Hey everyone!

I'm due for a new PC, and as always I prefer to assemble one from components. However, I'm a bit out of the loop lately. My last build was over 5 years ago (i.e. ancient :P) and I haven't kept track of much since in terms of tech etc.

The principal question now is this: what budget do I go for? My choice is essentially between €900 or (waiting for another paycheck) €1200. While of course more = better, I am not exactly sure right now whether it is worth it spending more money given what I tend to do with my PC.

I mostly play Blizzard games and RPGs of varying performance demands (anything from Baldur's Gate to Dragon Age). Naturally the latest titles have eluded my age-worn machine, and I'm definitely interested in trying those out on the new one (e.g. Witcher 3, DA:Inq). I don't usually play shooters/FPS. I do like my games to look nice, and run smoothly (60+fps would be preferred), but I'm not looking to run ultraultrasupermega details on 120fps either (not on a budget anyway).

Anyway, I looked at a couple of setups, and I've come up with a few core questions.

#1 GPU - I originally had my eye on the GTX970, but now I'm not sure how it fits with the budget, and with price/performance. Is a 970 really needed for what I'm trying to do, or is there a nice compromise on a lower budget tier? Is the card still overpriced for what it does? Are there cheaper alternatives that scale better with cost/performance ratio?

#2 CPU - I don't do video editing/rendering or such. I do play things like WoW which iirc run a lot off CPU performance as well. What is the best thing to go for then? I originally thought i5-6400, is that a good spot to be in? Is it too much/too little? I saw that CPUs like the i5-6600 are not that much more expensive, but is it an investment worth making? I do not plan on overclocking anything.

#3 SSD - is 128gb enough? The OS should probably run off it, and some of the games I guess? Is it worth it to go for 256gb instead, given that they are not that expensive anymore? Or will a nice 7200rpm HDD do a good enough job?

#4 RAM - I've read some confusing comparisons between DDR3 and DDR4 - which one is worth going for more? My aim is 8gb, that seems to be the common consensus of cost/performance these days. What type of RAM would fit my needs best?

I know this is a bit of a weird spot because of the two budgets that vary by 30%, but I really am at a loss here. Of course I could technically afford the higher budget, but I'm just not sure if it's wise to do so for what I have in mind. Given that I don't play super demanding things like competitive shooters, maybe the lower budget will do?

Advice and help is appreciated! Suggestions for single components and some explanations on my questions would be best, but I'll take a complete setup list if you want to share it. Might be a popular price-range so people have experience with it? Don't know. Ah, how the tech world keeps changing ever so rapidly... I still remember when AGP was a thing...

[Deleted]

I would probably go for something like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€211.87 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€34.92 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€88.30 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€63.28 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.54 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (€357.93 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (€62.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Antec 550W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (€60.00)
Total: €1018.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-07 19:01 CET+0100

Note: That PSU is the Antec VPF 550. Pcpartpicker is crap for european stuff....

Anyway, you could lower the GPU to a 380 if you want to get closer to the 900 euro mark. Or get the 380x which should be released the 15th.

I you want to spend more, you could go for a 6600k + Z170 mobo. That would probably increase costs by about 100-200 euro. Or you could stick with the 6500 and upgrade the GPU to either a 390x or fury. But those cards (well at least the fury) are a bit overkill for 1080p gaming.

To get to your questions.

1. The 970/390 are imo the sweet spot for 1080p gaming. They even allow for gaming at 1440p.
2. I would not opt for the 6400, while it's clock speed is quite low compared to the last generation. Although Intel did change the boost clock.
3. For a gaming system, the minimum I would get is a 250 GB SSD. THat is filled up quickly nowadays. And have a normal SSD for storage.
4. Depends on the choice of skylake/haswell. Skylake runs on DDR4 (unless the mobo only supports DDR3), and haswell DDR3.

[Biomega]

Thanks for the advice! Interesting things to think about.

One more question though: regarding the Motherboard chipset, is that any sort of a big deal? I heard talk about the new Z170 chipset etc. but I'm so far out of the loop I don't even know if it's something I need to worry about.

[Deleted]

Z170 is meant for overclocking, and it uses some other higher end stuff, such as soundchip. You could pick a Z170 mobo. But I picked a locked chip so went for this one instead.

[Biomega]

I'm not interested in overclocking, but I do like good sound quality. My entire music collection is in FLAC and I have a nice speaker setup, so I should probably look for a MB with nice sound on it?

[Deleted]

I'm not interested in overclocking, but I do like good sound quality. My entire music collection is in FLAC and I have a nice speaker setup, so I should probably look for a MB with nice sound on it?

Yes, or another option would be to add a soundcard or get a amp/DAC. But I am not to familiar with all those things.
I do have a soundblaster Z which sounds pretty good with my sennheiser HD598.

So I made some changes, not just the motherboard. I also put in an higher quality case and PSU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€211.55 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€34.92 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€152.74 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€63.57 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.54 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (€357.93 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€104.87 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€99.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1164.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 12:10 CET+0100

You could also use the other case and PSU I linked before and just change the motherboard.

[Deleted]

I made some changes to Zeara's core build here:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€263.65 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V VER.2 76.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€59.28 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€152.74 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€63.57 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.54 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card (€336.94 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case (€73.43 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€99.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1188.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 16:50 CET+0100

I added in the overclockable CPU and made some changes around the GPU and the cooler, which pushes the budget up. You can use Zeara's recommended cooler instead, and have the Overclockable CPU for only 4 euros more.

[Biomega]

I see you both went with the R9 390 over the GTX970 - is that a budget thing or is it genuinely a better card? Is it just about price/performance?

[Deleted]

The R9 390 is the better card and currently in DX 12 benchmarks, pulls ahead of the more expensive Nvidia 980, if you really want a new GPU now, the R9 390 is the card you want as it will yield more performance over time if you don't intend to upgrade in the next 2-3 years on the GPU side of things.

[Biomega]

Good to know! I do indeed not plan on upgrading for at least 2 years, probably more like 4.

[Deleted]

Another solution:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€263.65 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€34.92 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€141.35 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€61.60 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.84 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€51.54 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 8GB SOC Video Card (€331.75 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (€83.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€91.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1148.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-09 08:05 CET+0100